By: Blakely Greenwell
Welcome to The Blotter. This is where a group of students spend hours both in and out of school in effort to inform, report and entertain through the text laid out on each page.
As part of this newspaper staff for three years now, I have heard every complaint that anyone could imagine now. Anything from “The Blotter isn’t a real newspaper,” all the way to “newspaper is just like a study hall.” Well, here is why anyone that says such things would be wrong.
To expect everyone to be familiar with newspaper jargon and processes would be unfair. So I’ll break it down.
Every student in our newspaper class is required to “brainstorm” where we come up with ideas for each of our nine issues. This grueling task could wear anyone down, not only because it’s never-ending, but also ideas must interest our readers.
On top of that we plan our stories down to every last detail before we ever put pen to paper, or in our case, fingers to keyboard. Next, comes three separate drafts to review for mistakes and relevance. On top of that, stories must be backed up with interviews, statistics, and reliable sources. The staff reviews each story before it goes to press, and spends hours editing on publishing software called InDesign so it is pleasing to the eye.
To be a part of staff, a student must have completed the journalism or media arts course. The Blotter has staff members that spend numerous hours after school and give up their time to attend workshops or camps to reach their highest potential. Our staff continues to grow as writers and photographers so that we can continue to expand our publication, such as our new website, http://nahsblotter.wordpress.com.
If you don’t get anything else out of this, please understand that The Blotter is a student-produced newspaper. Our staff spends many hours each week putting their journalism skills to work trying to create a publication that not only interests students, but also informs them.
Everything in our publication might not be all rainbows and butterflies, it is our goal to inform, report, and entertain you as accurately as possible.
The staff appreciates feedback of any kind to continue to help us grow. Quite frankly, if you respond, at least the staff knows you took the time to read it, which is why The Blotter is printed in the first place. These responses would be most appropriate through an email to our adviser Mrs. Faulkner, comments on our website, or letters to the editor.
This is your school’s paper. If you love it, or have a problem with it, let us know.
